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In the meantime, airlines have agreed to abolish ‘hidden’ fees on debit cards and make credit card fees more transparent.

The OFT started the process some 12 months ago and in February this year put significant pressure on airlines to officially undertake to remove debit card charges by early summer.

However Flybe has accused some airlines as defying the agreement and continuing to add additional costs.

Visible: Airlines will have to include booking fees in the headline price of a flight

It claims that Aer Lingus continues to charge customers an additional £6 per one way sector when paying by debit or credit card, despite signing undertakings to the OFT that they would not charge an additional debit card fee from October 1.

It also states Easyjet was given until December to make the change, some ten months after the undertakings were intended to be signed.

While Easyjet does not charge an additional fee for paying by debit card, all tickets are subject to a £9 ‘admin fee’, which is not yet included in the headline price.

Similarly Ryanair was accused of blatantly disregarding the Treasury’s order to scrap hidden payment charges last year, by pledging to retain its £6 per ticket booking fee, branding it as an ‘administrative cost’. The operator said that since its ‘administrative fee’ is not passed on from the banks, its charge will still stand.

Flybe argues that consumers may believe a fare is cheaper than its own on a particular route, without realising that when additional costs or admin fees are calculated in, the rival fare may actually be more expensive.

Andrew Strong, Flybe UK MD says: ‘It’s a total shambles. Some of Europe’s largest airlines, with the most powerful IT departments, are being allowed to continue to blatantly abuse the process.

'Consumers are being duped into thinking that there is some sort of level playing field when comparing ticket prices. Media reports that airlines have become ‘transparent’ in their ticket pricing are false. They ignore the fact that several leading airlines are still continuing to charge for debit card payments.’

Flybe says it has made its views known to the OFT that this unacceptable situation is not in the interest of Fair Trading.

Although Flybe charges customers £11 each time they make a booking with a
credit card, since April it has not charged those who pay with a debit card.

A spokesman from the OFT said: 'We are pleased that most airlines fully implemented changes during the investigation earlier this year but some airlines showed they needed longer to make changes to these systems. We published the commitments given to us on our website in July including details about which airlines had agreed a later deadline for compliance.

‘We will continue to monitor changes made by the airlines and will consider taking further action if businesses do not address our concerns. In the meantime, passengers should continue to ensure they are comparing like with like.’